NZ License, Young Missionary P-Day, Birthday, Power Outage, and Membership Audit

Anna, Sean, Elle, MyLiege, and Alyx

Right after Seminary on Monday morning, we headed to the doctor's office so Steve could obtain a medical certificate so he could finally obtain his New Zealand driver's license. The whole process took less than 15 minutes. Next, we headed to the Automobile Association (AA) so he could get his license. This time there was no hassle! He is OFFICIAL now. 

We had a wonderful video call with MyLiege's family. It is always the highlight of our week when we get to see and talk with family. The bulk of the rest of the day was spent with the District Elders. They called to see if they could have P-Day at our house since the weather was dismal. Plus, some of them had laundry to do. Their washing machine is broken. We have been in the process of trying to get it repaired only to find out on Friday they can't get the part. So, we contacted Elder Garner and see if he has a replacement washer that we can pick up on July 4th...unless he heads up north before that time.

Elle playing Pink Panther

The Elders brought food and fixed lunch. They gave each other haircuts. We all talked a lot. Sang some songs with Elder Dixon on guitar and Elder Moyes on ukulele. We played games and just had fun. They left a little after 5 as they had dinner appointments, and teaching appointments they had to go to. At that point, I was able to get back to what I had planned for the day. Lol. It was a good think I had already prepared my Seminary lesson on Saturday. I only needed to review it.

Tuesday was similar to the last several Tuesdays we've had. Our Seminary Zoom class went reasonably well. After Seminary, we headed to the library to find more addresses for our lost members list. The Zone leaders showed up not long after we did and they stayed the whole time. We only found 7 addresses, but every bit helps. 

P-Day with the Elders
Elder Bailey, Elder Dixon, Elder Lea'ana, 
Elder Moyes, and Elder Sanders

Once home we had Sister Budge and Elder Moyes over for their Pathway courses. Sister Budge was sick, but still needed to do her class. I made her some chicken soup and put her in the office. Elder Moyes did his class in the spare room. Sister Budge's companion and Elder Moyes companion hung out with us during the classes. Normally they would have gone on splits with another companionship, but there is so much sickness going around, they didn't have anyone to split with. We enjoyed a nice visit with them. 

I received several birthday Facebook posts and chat messages throughout the day. It is nice to read them. Steve got me a beautiful necklace and matching Kiwi earrings. Birthday wishes continued through Wednesday, since that was Tuesday the 18th in the States. So, I got double birthday wishes. 😇

The Elders taught a great Seminary lesson on Wednesday. Elder Cockbain was sick, so the recovered Elder Bailey came with Elder Dixon. They did a great job. They started with a little game to show how Satan uses different tactics to deceive us. Everyone had a good time. The rest of the lesson was all about detecting those deceptions and more importantly, learning how to decern the truth by listening to the Holy Ghost.

We had a very small group for our DCM meeting. We had exactly half our people. The South District ended up cancelling their meeting. Elder Bailey planned a little birthday party for me and Elder Lea'ana. Elder Dixon made some yummy chocolate mousse and sent it with Elder Bailey. He had to stay home because his companion, Elder Cockbain is sick.

Elder Lea'ana cutting 
Elder Moyes' hair

We worked on the Membership Audit, but we needed some input from the Bishop. He came over in the evening so we could review it with him. We found a couple of ordinations that occurred that we needed to track down dates. Steve worked on that on Thursday and we were able to submit the audit.

Thursday was an interesting day. I'm not sure if we were coming down with something or only feeling sympathy ills because of all the sickness in our District. Anyway, after my Zoom Seminary class and our Mission Zoom SPF meeting, I decided to take a nap. I was so tired. I NEVER nap. I fell asleep for two hours. When I woke up, I was very cold even though I had a blanket on. I looked at that clock and it was blank. I figured I must have accidentally unplugged it. I headed out to the living room to find Elder Wilcox on the couch with a coat on looking at his tablet. He informed me the power had been out for over an hour. Some tower fell over and took out the power for half of Northland. A VERY LARGE area.

Mission Zoom SPF Meeting

We were supposed to go to the Hesters at 1:00 for a meeting, but it got postponed until 3:00. We stayed bundled up until then. We stayed bundled up at the Hester's house. Since Elder Cockbain was still sick, they joined us on video chat. We had a fairly productive meeting about our missionary work and strengthening our ward. After the meeting, we had a nice visit with the Hesters over some yummy desert they served us. We headed back home before dark.

Sister Lilloux presenting in SPF meeting

Back home, we got flashlights out and made some sandwiches for dinner. We were supposed to host the Youth Activity that night, but with the power still out at 5:00, they decided to postpone the activity until next week. Our power finally came back on by 5:30. We were able to fry our ham and cheese sandwiches so we could eat something warm. It was so nice to have lights and heat again. 

Steve and I went back to the library Friday morning. The city council is right next to the library, and we found out that we can apply for free parking in Whangarei since we are over 65. Since we were going to be there anyway, we decided to hit the library. Steve didn't have enough information to get the free pass yet, but he got the application, and we were able to obtain the rest of the information we needed. He will go back on Monday or Tuesday, in hopes of getting the pass. We have to pay $2 an hour every time we go to the library, so free parking would be very nice. It was just the two of us that day and we didn't find any new addresses, even though we looked at 6 books. 

We headed to the Church to print off some ordination certificates. We picked up some parchment paper on the way. We also cleaned out some very old papers that were filed in a drawer. We will shred them next week per the Bishop. On the way home from there, we stopped at a really nice family's house who live very near us. The father is an inactive member. They are wonderful people, and we had a lovely visit. They have 5 beautiful girls. He drives trains in Australia two weeks at a time and is home in New Zealand for two weeks. That seems hard to me, but they make it work. They seem like a very happy family.

Saturday, I spent the morning working on the computer. I did my scripture study first thing. Then I worked on my Seminary lessons. In between we cleaned the house, did the laundry, and changed the linen.

After lunch, I took a walk to Charlotta’s house. She is home alone, since her husband is down south with his father who is in the hospital. His father is finally doing better. It was very, very serious for the first part of the week. He isn’t out of the woods yet but doing better. Charlotta and I had a nice visit. She had been baking for the Stake Youth Karaoke night. Charlotta was just called to the Young Women’s organization two weeks ago. After a while, we both needed to get going. 

When I got home, the Elders’ car was in the driveway. They showed up to do laundry. Their washer is still not fixed. Elder Dixon and I talked about Seminary for a while. I was hoping he had a good idea for an opener that would work for my Thursday lesson. He came up with a good idea that I think will work. 

After the Elders left, I worked on HawkSoft for a couple of hours before we settled in for the evening.

We were at church all morning on Sunday. Our meetings went well. Steve got to bless the Sacrament today so that was nice. After Church, we had Ward Council. I feel it was a pretty productive meeting.

At home, I worked on my scripture study and then the recap for my blog. Elder Wilcox updated the minutes for the Ward Council meeting, and we got that sent out. He then worked on a few things for the ward and started preparing for the Quarterly Reports that are do the first week in July.

At 4:00 we dropped off a document to a very sweet sister in our ward and visited her for a little while. Then we headed to Sister Paratene’s house for dinner. Since she lives alone, she can’t have the Elders over with someone else there. So, we get to benefit from that situation. We had a very nice time.

Once home, we joined a virtual Area Meeting for perspective Senior Missionaries. We participated in a bunch of those meetings when we were serving at Headquarters in Interpretation. They are always really good meetings.

All our Love and Prayers,

Elder and Sister Wilcox